Lennon thrilled with five-star show

27 November 2011 07:17

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Celtic manager Neil Lennon was spoilt for choice as he looked for players to praise following his side's 5-0 home win over St Mirren.

A Gary Hooper hat-trick would normally have grabbed the headlines, but the inspiration was provided by the much-maligned Georgios Samaras, who opened the scoring after four minutes. And late in the second half, 18-year-old Dylan McGeouch stole the show with a wonderful solo goal, his first for the club.

Lennon said: I couldn't ask for any more from the players. Hooper was sensational, as was Samaras, and for a young player like McGeouch who is a Celtic fan - as is his family - it was a special moment and I'm sure he is a very proud boy."

He added: "Georgios deserved a standing ovation. I couldn't be more pleased for him. I was delighted he scored and he set the tempo for the team. We know he has the talent, now we are looking for the consistency. I'm glad the fans appreciated his performance because he showed everyone what he can do.

"Hooper looked really sharp. He is a clinical finisher and you saw all the good things in his game."

McGeouch was originally a youth player at Celtic before joining Rangers, and Lennon revealed that he had intervened to bring him back in the summer.

The former Celtic skipper said: "I went to see his parents and there were about 400,000 people outside the house! It was quite interesting. I think we had to pay a bit of compensation but we are very pleased that he wanted to come back and play here. He might not get a better goal in his career than that and it was a great way to start his Celtic career."

Saints boss Danny Lennon felt his side met Celtic on the wrong day.

He said: "I said that Celtic have been unpredictable this season, you don't know what you're going to get, but we caught them on a day we didn't want to get them.

"They were absolutely fantastic. We gave them a helping hand in the first two goals. We tried to be positive in the second half to try to get something but that went against us."